off limits ✧ zb1 applyfic

✧ sixty seven

Ricky wasn’t usually one to worry. He'd never had to think much about what tomorrow would be made of, never liked to poison his mind with catastrophizing thoughts about all the ways things could go wrong. Living his life like that often made things much easier, but sometimes, he simply couldn’t turn a blind eye to his problems, no matter how much he wanted to. Vicky's sudden disappearance was one of those things he couldn’t ignore. For the past few days, she hadn’t replied to any of his texts, and God knew he sent so many she couldn’t possibly have missed them.

Today again, he'd spent another day at summer school, without Vicky's company. Their agreement to make it easier and more fun for one another had certainly not panned out. Dragging his feet, he walked towards the school gates, ready to go home and attempt to contact her again. He'd kept his head down, his eyes to the ground the whole way, but as he approached the gate, he instinctively looked up. Thankfully, because on the other side of the gate stood Jiwoong, coming in with a bunch of folders tucked under his arm.

Immediately, the weariness dripped off of his body and he ran in the direction of his older friend. Finally, he had the opportunity to have answers to his questions!

"Jiwoong hyung!" he called, louder than he'd intended. "Why are you here?"

"Oh, Ricky?" He lifted his head, pushing his glasses back up his nose. "I'm bringing teaching material to get it approved by the professors. What's going on? You look agitated."

He took a second to regain his breath, a hand on his heart. "I have something to ask you. Is Vicky okay? She's not answering my texts and I'm really worried..."

At his question, Jiwoong's expression darkened. He shifted his weight from one foot to the other, his lips pursed into a preoccupied expression. But Ricky couldn’t wait for an answer, couldn’t risk staying in the dark because Jiwoong wasn’t willing to talk. He'd almost lost sleep over this, wondering if Vicky suddenly hated him and never wanted to be in his presence again.

"Gunwook said she was sick," he continued, "but he doesn’t know any more than that. What's going on?"

Jiwoong heaved a long sigh, and shrugged. "Well, she is sick. But I'm not sure it's physical."

"Huh?"

"Vicky seems very down these days. She told me it was just because she was insecure about failing her exams, and that she didn't feel like going to summer school, but... I'm not sure I believe her." His eyebrows furrowed, he looked back up at Ricky. "Did something happen at school?"

For a minute, Ricky paused. He racked his brain, trying to find anything unusual that may have happened in the days before Vicky suddenly disappeared. But no matter how hard he thought, he couldn’t find anything. In fact, she'd seemed pretty happy and cheerful back then. They'd gotten closer, and he thought she would have been comfortable enough to tell him if something was going on.

"I can't think of anything." Then, something popped up in his head. "Could it have to do with that one teacher she had issues with?"

At that, Jiwoong's eyes widened. He seemed taken aback by the suggestion. "She told you about that?"

"Yeah, briefly."

"I see... Well, no, I don't think it's that. She would have told me."

Similarly, if that were the case, Ricky hoped she would have told him. After all, he'd opened up to her, she'd opened up to him, and friends were there to help one another, weren’t they? He would be a little disappointed to learn that she couldn’t trust him with something like that... But no matter his feelings, Vicky obviously trusted her older brother. So if he said it wasn't that, Ricky believed him.